Is computer audio a bust?

09-06-14: Mapman
Tortilla is right about the value of using a network to get the data to the player. I agree 100%. It makes what you use as the computer essentially irrelevant in regards to sound quality. As long as there is enough storage and processing power streaming is a trivial task for most any computer made in the last 10 years. I have tried many configurations this way and the sound quality does not vary into same DAC. Whereas sound quality with computer based play software is all over the place. USB implementation is a significant factor as well, but software used to play seems to be the biggest variable I hear to-date.

+1

Hi Joecasey, and every one, I have on my computer Ashampoo studio 8, I burn cds to computer to blank cds for recording, full format, no compressed files, and yes, down loads to, and un compress them to normal format to go on cd for play back, I just do not know if the soft ware I have that my computer repair friend put on this computer he built for me is High-end, I know fellas, Do Not laugh here at me, Though I still believe computer audio cannot match a good digital or analog cable on a profound dac or cd-player, I would like to learn from all of you!, I do need to be with the times!, maybe a state of the art music server would be great, like I believe TBG may be getting?,currently, I would like to attempt to do my best with little money to achieve best results for recording?, I am going to write down the three software recommendations thus far, how much money does something like this cost, what do any of you think about the Ashampoo studio 8 I mentioned?, cheers.

09-07-14: Tbg
My music server comes with a TEAC optical drive with Linux program for ripping with many checks for errors. I have found that ripping is much faster when the cds are treated with the Essence of Music cd treatment and clearly sound better also.

Does the time to treat a cd negate the shorter ripped time of a treated cd?

Since ripping is not real-time, it really doesn't matter IMO.

Joecasey, I agree but it does suggest that the longer time means that errors are more common, that Essence of Music reduces them. It probably does not mean much in ripping, but the ripping with the treatment sounds noticeably better, and I suspect that on a universal player would be quite a good deal better.

09-08-14: Tbg
Joecasey, I agree but it does suggest that the longer time means that errors are more common, that Essence of Music reduces them. It probably does not mean much in ripping, but the ripping with the treatment sounds noticeably better, and I suspect that on a universal player would be quite a good deal better.

There are tons of benchmarks extracting data off different mediums. It's a known issue and impact greatly magnified in real time.